On Love: ‘It was a relationship unlike anything I’d been in before’

In October, after meeting Becker’s family, Bereano told her he loved her. Two weeks later, at a friend’s wedding, he vowed that he was going to marry her someday.

“I had butterflies,” she recalled. “But it just made sense when he said that.”

(Holland Photo Arts, LLC/HOLLAND PHOTO ARTS, LLC) - Margaret Becker and Bryon Bereano exchanged vows at the Uriah P. Levy Center at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD.

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They began to talk openly about getting engaged and looked at potential dates for a wedding. Although they had dated for less than six months, neither saw any reason to wait.

“It was a relationship unlike anything I’d been in before. Everything was just so natural,” he says. “And at that point it’s like, You know what you want. Why are you going to wait? This is the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. Might as well go ahead.”

They each felt as if they’d spent their lives preparing for this relationship.

“Bryon and I both have very long and different paths, but it definitely makes us appreciate each other,” Becker says.

“Yeah,” Bereano adds. “It got us ready for each other.”

Because Becker’s 93-year-old grandfather had been a jeweler, Bereano arranged to go ring shopping with him. In December 2011, the two men picked out a diamond.

And in January, Becker returned from a work trip in California on an early-morning flight. She arrived at her house to see rose petals strewn across the floor and Bereano down on one knee. “He’s saying all these sweet things, and all I could think was, ‘Oh my gosh, I didn’t shower!’ ” she remembers.

Becker said yes anyway. In May, Bereano moved into her home in the District.

On Dec. 2, 2012, the two exchanged vows at the Jewish chapel of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. Becker’s childhood rabbi officiated the ceremony, and Bereano laughed as he nervously stumbled through his vows. Becker was worried she’d feel woozy, but standing under the chuppah with Bereano and their families, she felt only joy. “I remember thinking, ‘It’s going to go quick, take this in.’ ”

Rosen, of course, was delighted with her handiwork. “They’re so hopelessly in love with one another,” she says. “You can just look at them and tell.”